This disclosure relates generally to sensor data processing, and more particularly to sensor data processing for trajectory generation of a mobile platform.
Mobile platforms, such as ground-based vehicles, robots, aerial vehicles such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones, or other mobile platforms typically include sensors that provide environmental feedback for navigation and control of the mobile platform. Such sensors often include visual sensors (e.g., cameras) and range sensors that detect the existence of and/or distance to objects within the environment. Mobile platforms that operate autonomously or semi-autonomously often generate or store a map that facilitates obstacle avoidance, path planning, object recognition, or other navigational operations. Such maps, in certain cases, take the form of a rendered three-dimensional computer model, such as a polygon mesh model, which defines the shape and locations of objects within the environment.
Path planning and obstacle avoidance using a three-dimensional computer model, however, can be computationally expensive. As such, the utilization of three-dimensional computer models for additional degrees of available information as well as increased accuracy and precision of navigational control often increases the processing burden and corresponding power consumption of the navigation control system (e.g., when rendered on a CPU), thereby decreasing the utility of such models for real-time control of autonomous mobile platforms that often have strict power and weight requirements.